I’VE JUST SPENT two days in a Porsche driving almost 1000 kilometers on some of the finest roads South Africa can offer, and I’m blown away. A few years ago I drove a Porsche 911 GT3 and confidently declared to all and sundry that if I had the money this was the car I’d buy. Now I’m not so sure anymore. This might just be the Porsche I’d go for.

IMAGE GALLEY FOR PORSCHE CAYENNE

No, it’s not the Porsche Cayenne! I’m talking about 911 Turbo. Big über powerful SUVs are not my cup of tea. Cars like the nimble 911 Turbo are my tipple of choice. The irony is that cars like the Cayenne, and now also the four-door Panamera, both derided as abominations by vocal Porsche purists, make dream cars like the GT3 and 911 Turbo possible. These ‘abominations’ are hugely profitable, taking the Porsche brand into previously virgin markets. And this piece of financial genius, dear petrolhead, allows Porsche to continue building 911s for enthusiasts like you and I.

There is another ironic twist to the story. The ‘abominations’ might not appeal to the aesthetic tastes of Porschenistas, but they’re quite good to drive. Bloody good. Brilliant in fact.

So even though the original Cayenne was tinier on the inside than its exterior girth suggested and it looked like the illegitimate love child of a philandering 911 and a sluttish blowfish, it sold by the bucketload. The new Cayenne I’m staring at in the shimmering heat of the Arabian desert, about 80km south east of Dubai, looks a lot better.

It’s still not beautiful, but show me an SUV that is. This one’s a lot less offensive though. Even though the Cayenne has been stretched by 48mm, is 6mm higher and 11mm wider, it manages to look smaller than its predecessor. Put that down to a more elegant design. The bulbous shapes have been stretched and smoothed, airdams at the front are more subtle and the rear lights are horizontal units that echo Porsche’s sleeker sports cars. Think less Navratilova, more Amelie Mauresmo but still no Anna Kournikova.

It’s a different story inside the cabin. Porsche interiors are a personal favourite, and the Cayenne’s seems to be borrowed from its Panamera cousin. Not a bad thing. Where other manufacturers have gone for rotary dials that lead you into a maze of menus and submenus, Porsche has retained buttons for everything. On a 4x4 masquerading as a sports car (or is that the other way around?) that means there’s a lot of buttons. They’re logically laid out left and right of the shifter, simple to figure out and easy to reach. The materials on the touch surfaces are beautiful and durable. Tweaks on the restyled interior include the rev counter which now occupies centre position on the instrument cluster, the rear passenger bench which can move 160mm forwards and backwards and a new set of grab handles up front.